A woman friend of mine once quipped,
"There are no ugly women, just lazy ones".
Likewise, those that love the 6X6 square, and lament it's loss are just lazy.
I do not kid myself that I abandoned my much loved 6X6 (and other MF analog film cameras) for any other reason then I was, am, and remain lazy, pure and simple.
The whining about no 6X6 sensor has been going on for a decade now … I predict that even if you live to be 110, you will die of old age "whining & pining" for one.
Digital has contaminated photography by appealing to the slothfulness in us. Read any commentary on digital advancements, and the emphasis is primarily about making it easier, faster, more prolific …
"Oh my, the new ZXD-MKIII won't make a milkshake for me. It's a piece of shyt, I wouldn't caught dead with."
Digital is like a promiscuous escort … pay the money and anyone can have it's delights. Pay more, get more. Not a lot more, just enough to make you pay even more to get a little more. Pretty soon you'll have to buy the damned thing an apartment in the city.
We have a million reasons we conjure up to mask our laziness.
"Film is so expensive". How much do we think a 6X6 sensor back would cost if they made one? $30K to $35K would buy a lot of film and processing.
"Film is hard to get." More laziness. B&H lists 60 different 120 offerings. Hell, they even offer 4 different listings for 220.
"Film processing is disappearing." Actually, the hack labs are disappearing. There are plenty of expert labs doing film, and if you aren't too lazy, you can do your own B&W.
Johnny is right, an Epson flatbed scanner can do MF film quite nicely, for the price of a P&S camera. If you want more, faster, better, get a Imacon 949 … I know of mint one to be had for $10K … the price of a "dated" crop frame digital back for a 6X6 camera.
Personally, in retrospect, my slothfulness and lazy ways has cost me a King's ransom. I was forced to MF digital to compete commercially, but when I ended that trek I kept going with digital by throwing huge wads of money into a black hole. Being lazy is an expensive pursuit.
Unfortunately laziness is a terminal disease, and I'm now too old and set in my ways to venture back to film. For those that haven't yet caught the MF digital virus, you still have a chance.
- Marc